Åndalsnes

We had a sea day yesterday as we make our way rapidly down the coast of Norway. It was a mild, mostly wet day and I got my steps in walking round the promenade deck.

The sun did come out behind the Seven Sisters mountains, and later everyone took a sip of cod liver oil because we crossed back down from the Arctic Circle.

Today we stopped at Åndalsnes and the sun came back out.

It was another stop at a small town with not a lot of highlights on the map. Most of the other passengers either took a train ride or went up to the top of a mountain on a gondola, but we went for a hike.

It was only a few minutes to the start, and someone had put a lot of effort into making this hike a memorable one.

There were helpful markers and a steel walkway to help us across the ice at the bottom, and then excellent paths up the mountain.

We made it about 250 vertical metres up the mountain, although this was nowhere near to the top, and then started our descent on a new path around to the side.

To start with it was steep but okay, and then we had to go straight across a massive boulder field, whilst trying to look out for tiny red markers.

The one kilometre across this area took 49 minutes. Then after the boulders someone had kindly put in metal ropes to help across the scariest bits.

Of course we eventually got safely down, and had a lovely stroll along the side of the fjord back to the ship.

Sunset wasn't until at least 3.30pm and in the minutes before it the clouds came down the sun just managed to send a few rays almost horizontally on to the trees and mountains opposite. The light was incredible and I took this photo of the mountains and the reflections in the water.

I was going to enter this into the daily competition, but quite a few other people had already put in the same view.

By the way, I didn't win in the last couple of days and I lost out to photos of reindeer and husky dogs.

Narvik

 We have an afternoon in Narvik, and it doesn't sound very exciting. There is nothing notable to see and most people are either going dog sledding (that's a no from me), or on a train ride up the fjord, which is a no from both.

Instead, I found a park on the map that looked quite nice but was quite far away, and Daz drew up a route to get to it.

However, from the second that we got off the ship it was much better than expected.

We followed a lovely narrow path along the edge of the fjord with gorgeous views.

However, the icing on the cake was my park, called Elvedalen Park.

The park sloped gently down to the fjord and a little stream meandered through it and was cross crossed by lots of little bridges.

I have entered the photography competition again and this arty close up shot is my entry.

Fingers crossed but I am up against some cute husky dogs and northern lights shots so I am not feeling confident.

I also put this photo in as a bit of a wild card.

Eventually we reached Narvik town itself that had a big shopping mall and some nice buildings and features.

Alta

 Today we are 38 kilometres from the open sea at the end of a northern facing fjord. This is quite important because it means that we are away from the warmer sea and the Gulf Stream so it is currently about -10 centigrade.

We set off just as the sun was rising, although that didn't affect the temperature.

We had a lovely walk through a forest from the dock to the centre of Alta. Once there we immediately found the beautiful modern church with the curly whirly spire.

We both made the terrible mistake of taking our gloves off for more than a few seconds to take photos, and it was made even worse because then we found an ice sculpture park and took the gloves off again.

It was then almost impossible to warm them up again, but we picked up the pace and headed back to the ship, taking a detour to a disused ski jump.

It had steps up to the top and looked terrifying.

Back on the ship the sun set before 3pm, and the beautiful pink sunset filled the sky.

Then just as we were having dinner an announcement was made that the northern lights were out. We jumped up between courses to have a look and they were the best that we have ever seen. Unfortunately we didn't have coats or cameras so didn't stay long, but we saw more of the lights after we had finished our puddings although they weren't anywhere near as spectacular.

Honningsvåg

Today we were in Honningsvåg at the very top of Norway. It was snowing although, not very cold so we set off on our trek.

Right opposite the ship was a statue of Bamse, a very big dog that went to sea with the sailors in WW2, and was very brave and popular. He also spent time at a port in Scotland, and after the war two identical statues were erected, pointing across the sea to each other.

Speaking of the war, the Nazi's occupied northern Norway in 1944 and destroyed every building in Honningsvåg apart from the church.

After the war people gradually moved back to the area and they lived inside the church whilst building new homes and businesses.

The sea did not look inviting for a paddle, and the hills were difficult to climb as the snow was deep, but we did our best to get around.

I took what I think is a nice photo to enter into the daily on board photography competition, although there are dozens of people on board with very fancy set ups, and we are just using our mobile phones.

BREAKING NEWS!!! The photograph that I entered yesterday actually won!! Unfortunately there was no prize, but I am very chuffed. This is the one I entered.

Sorry for bragging, but I just can't help it.

Tromsø

Today we are in Tromsø, capital city of the Arctic. On board the ship we have been learning how to pronounce the Norwegian letters with the little hats, circles, etc. The letter ø in Tromsø is surprisingly pronounced 'ugh', as in something very unpleasant, so you are meant to say Troms-ugh.

It sounds totally fine when the onboard crew say it, but totally wrong and taking the mickey when I try.

Around 75,000 people live here and so is very large compared to most other places that we have visited. They have some interesting architecture too and this is the aquarium. Strangely, the statue is a polar bear and not fish related at all.

The building looks like a stack of giant concrete blocks that are falling over, but it's supposed to be very good inside. 

The architecture matches the beautiful Arctic cathedral on the other side of the river. We have been there on a previous trip, but this time Daz only got a very poor photo of it as we were leaving.

No, those aren't bars on our window, we were sailing under a bridge as it passed out of sight.

Moving on, we walked uphill to a lovely lake, although this time there were no ice skaters as it was completely covered in snow.

This was the walk up through residential streets, and the snowman was already sitting on the lake when we reached it.

Svolvær

Today we arrived at Svolvær in the far northern Lofoten Islands.

It is so far north that the sun starts to announce it's arrival at least two hours in advance, if the sky is clear as it was today.

Then once it actually gets over the horizon it stays so low that you see another hour or so of sunrises.

It gives a beautiful effect and we just couldn't stop taking photos.

Today we were being a bit more careful on our walk as fresh snow covered the steps up to a viewpoint, and after only a few metres we realised that we could not get any further.

However, the view was superb, and the only question now was how to get back down.

This was the first time that I was genuinely scared on this trip, but fortunately Daz led the way by turning the steps into a toboggan run, and I just followed him.

Back at sea level we followed the route recommended by Hurtigruten. This took us through the town and out on a harbour to the cod drying racks.

These were enormous structures upon which the cod that is caught locally is dried. They only do it over winter and in a couple of months they should all be full. It was interesting but also pretty smelly.

Beyond the fish racks were absolutely superb sea views that almost bought a tear to my eye.

Right at the end of the harbour was a statue of a woman looking out to sea waiting for her husband to return from the sea.